More than half of B2B marketers charged with overseeing the quality and management of data are 'significantly' pressured by upper management to generate additional leads based on the data.

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According to the survey by The Telemarketing Company, 59 per cent of B2B marketers feel under more pressure than ever to generate successful sales leads while there is still confusion surrounding lead generation with about 24 per cent saying that sales and marketing do not have a shared definition of a 'lead.' Additionally, 26 per cent surveyed say that lead generation is the greatest pressure on the marketing department.

To add to the pressure, the report suggests that there is still confusion surrounding lead generation and the ROI of new leads. About 24 per cent said that sales and marketing do not have a shared definition of a “lead” while a quarter of the respondents stated that they are “quite unconfident” or “very unconfident” in tracking leads from cold to close. With marketing automation tools assisting B2B marketers in terms of lead generation, 53 per cent seem to feel that automation tools are actually decreasing the quality of the leads.

The report notes that there is an over-reliance on a technology that is possibly generating poor data sets and an ineffective sales effort. Additionally, those surveyed agreed that if a lead hasn’t been properly qualified, the chances of the sales team making any headway are significantly reduced.

Although the move toward marketing automation means that previous research shows that marketing automation tool adoption increases among B2B marketers. However, there are still challenges linked to these resources.

An additional report by Marketing Land has found that 61 per cent of marketers would like to see more integration among their marketing technologies while about 61 percent believe an improved process for data sharing between tools might raise their chances of success.

According to this report, B2B marketers hope to increase lead generation, lead nurturing, sales revenue, and improve customer engagement with marketing automation strategies. However, 52 per cent of respondents cited that an ineffective strategy is holding them back from marketing automation success. Further, although approximately 65 per cent of B2B marketers have increased their budgets for marketing automation in 2016, an additional 42 per cent believe system complexity is the greatest marketing automation challenge.